1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for formatting and displaying data, and in particular, to an absolute and relative coordinate based format description system and method for displaying information, such as text, graphics, audio/visual multimedia, etc. within a computer environment.
2. Related Art
Effective presentation of information in interactive computer environments, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) environments, is important. Most World Wide Web (WWW) sites on the Internet are presented in HTML environments and rely on effective presentation of their respective information to attract interactive users to their respective WWW sites. For HTML environments, interactive information is usually presented with multimedia content, including a combination of text, graphics, audio media, visual media and hyperlinks.
Many HTML WWW sites utilize specific formatting techniques, such as table formatting techniques, for presenting their information. Table formatting techniques allow information to be displayed in an organized flat, two-dimensional box or table. Each table is comprised of a plurality of orthogonal rows and columns of cells. Also, each table can be located within another parent table, which can be located within a grandparent table, and so on to thereby form nested tables. Certain predefined cells of the tables typically can contain text, graphics, audio media, video media, etc. Table formatting techniques allow organized and rigidly structured presentation of information in HTML environments.
However, since formatted tables are comprised of orthogonal rows and columns of cells, formatted tables are always limited to rectangular shapes. Also, random, offset or complex placement of multimedia, such as random placement of images or discrete placement of adjacent images or adjacent lines of text, require separate or complicated nested tables. In addition, complex presentation of multimedia requires tedious and time-consuming conceptual planning, preparation and layout of the nested tables before the table formatting is actually created. Further, although some HTML editors and generators can automatically process non-HTML formatted multimedia content and generate HTML formatted tables of the multimedia content, the formatted tables that are usually created are unduly complex, usually cannot be sufficiently modified in real time and are often impossible to manually edit after the formatted tables are automatically created.
Therefore, what is needed is an effective and efficient technique for presenting information, such as interactive multimedia, in an easy and flexible format for HTML environments. What is also needed is a system and method for automatically generating and positioning coordinate generated text, graphics and audio/visual multimedia with absolute and relative locations within an HTML environment without requiring complex table formatting.
Whatever the merits of the above mentioned systems and methods, they do not achieve the benefits of the present invention.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention is embodied in an absolute and relative coordinate based format description system and method for displaying information, such as text, graphics, audio/visual multimedia, etc. within a computer environment.
Specifically, the present invention allows multimedia information including text, graphics, audio media, visual media and hyperlinks, to be effectively presented and displayed within a computer environment. The multimedia information is contained within geometrical objects, which can be located anywhere within any type of user interface layout of a computer environment, such as an HTML working area, publishing software canvas, visual programming applications, and the like, with absolute or relative positioning and properties. Each object can be independent of other objects (absolute values) or dependent on other objects (relative values).
In addition, the geometrical objects can be nested within each other, overlaid on top of one another, located randomly within the user interface layout or subsequently modified, repositioned or resized based on absolute or relative values. A feature of the present invention is that the geometrical objects are true objects and can exist and be modified within the user interface layout based on either absolute or relative formatting. An advantage of this is that the geometrical objects can be created without the rigid structure formatting that is required by formatted tables and the present invention is not subject to the strict orthogonality requirements of formatted tables.
The foregoing and still further features and advantages of the present invention as well as a more complete understanding thereof will be made apparent from a study of the following detailed description of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings and appended claims.